TopoGigo:Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

Analgesic:thisisyourbrainonFark: Analgesic: dletter: What you get for buying a frozen gas station burrito when there is a perfectly good fast food taco place inside the same building... http://www.stripesstores.com/taco_company

I'm not sure if you're being facetious but that's just the rebranding of the frozen food at most Stripes locations. Everything they serve is premade for the most part. Generally without glove bits but Taco Company isn't steal fast food joint cohabitating in these gas stations.

Wat?

Sorry, either the single auto-correct on my mobile of real to steal made that entire response incomprehensible or you're an internet tard. Based on your response: lol, taco compny not real nehowz. Is just frozen food warmed up at stripes. Lolz n stuff.

Better?

Analgesic:dletter: What you get for buying a frozen gas station burrito when there is a perfectly good fast food taco place inside the same building... http://www.stripesstores.com/taco_company

I'm not sure if you're being facetious but that's just the rebranding of the frozen food at most Stripes locations. Everything they serve is premade for the most part. Generally without glove bits but Taco Company isn't steal fast food joint cohabitating in these gas stations.

I've never been to one and don't live around there... but this makes it sound like more than frozen stuff....

Dow Jones and the Temple of Doom:I used to work near a Texaco with an awesome Mexican kitchen in the back. Breakfast pizza, burritos from scratch, fried chicken, it was all delicious. Best kept secret in town.

It's been many, many years since I bought a pre-made burrito from a convenience store, they all taste like crap to me.That said, I've had absolutely fantastic home made burritos & tamales from stores in small towns in my state (NM)

TopoGigo:Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

Old Man Winter:I found a big*ass grasshopper in a can of green beans once. The craziest thing is I just shrugged and threw it out without taking a pic or even thinking about complaining to the retailer who sold it to me. I mean how stupid was I. I could have gone to the press or sued.

I have the same story with either a rat leg bone or maybe a finger bone in a pay-day candy bar. My Dad was so mad that I threw it out.

TopoGigo:Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

Yeah, when places started using the gloves here I just shook my head. Had to stop cooks all the time from entering the restroom with gloves on because I saw them come out with them on. People are more likely to wash naked hands than wash gloved hands.

Once took a young'un to the hospital because after deseeding jalopenos he peed with those gloves on.

Kevin72:That part of Texas really sucks Donkey balls. I was passing through on Greyhound and they insisted that I would have to pay for two cups of coffee to have a second cup with nothing in it but ice. Plus some other stupid thing I don't remember.

A lot of places everywhere do cup counts to cut down on employees pocketing money from drinks and claiming they gave ice these days. Or water, if they don't sell bottled.

lindalouwho:TopoGigo: Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

Yeah, when places started using the gloves here I just shook my head. Had to stop cooks all the time from entering the restroom with gloves on because I saw them come out with them on. People are more likely to wash naked hands than wash gloved hands.

Once took a young'un to the hospital because after deseeding jalopenos he peed with those gloves on.

That shiat ain't no joke, that kid was in tears.

He sounds too stupid for restaurant work. I'm surprised there wasn't a policy in place to remove the gloves before using the restroom, and put on a new set after washing hands. Otherwise what's the point of the gloves in the first place?

Abacus9:lindalouwho: TopoGigo: Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

Yeah, when places started using the gloves here I just shook my head. Had to stop cooks all the time from entering the restroom with gloves on because I saw them come out with them on. People are more likely to wash naked hands than wash gloved hands.

Once took a young'un to the hospital because after deseeding jalopenos he peed with those gloves on.

That shiat ain't no joke, that kid was in tears.

He sounds too stupid for restaurant work. I'm surprised there wasn't a policy in place to remove the gloves before using the restroom, and put on a new set after washing hands. Otherwise what's the point of the gloves in the first place?

Yo, of course there was a policy. But like washing hands in general, do we really know who does and who doesn't? I did say I kept an eye out for it if I saw it done once.

TopoGigo:Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

In addition to being blue, the bandages you use when working in a factory that makes food has metal threads woven into them so that the metal detectors they use will see them and kick them off. As far as gloves, a factory worker can end up touching a myriad of things, any time they touch something that isn't a food contact surface, they have to change their gloves before touching the food or the contact surface, and it's easier to just change gloves than to run to the sink 25 feet away to do this every time.

Abacus9:TopoGigo: Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

You disagree with using gloves?

I disagree with using gloves for ready-to-eat foods in a restaurant. The simple reason is that the same f*ckbrains who can't wash their hands think the gloves are goddamned magic. Go to Subway some time, grab a table, and just watch those numbnuts. They'll take money, touch their faces, stick their hands in the garbage cans, wash dishes, pick sh*t up off the ground, and any number of foul things with their gloves on, but it's ok, because I'm wearing gloves! The worst part is, even the ones who know better will push it, because you're required to wash your hands every time you change your gloves. Guess what? When your hands are damp, you can't get the gloves on.

You can feel when your hands are dirty. You can't feel when your gloves are dirty. Gloves transfer bacteria from surface to surface far more efficiently than skin. The natural oils on your skin have slight antiseptic properties. Your skin also has its own biome of bacteria that is hostile to foreign, for example food-borne, microbes.

The absolute worst part about glove use, though, is the fact that it makes workers and management complacent about cross-contamination. It only takes one mistake at any control point--often before the product even comes in your back door--to introduce food-borne illness into your restaurant, and it's my experience that places with strict handwashing policies will have far better cross-contamination protections than places that are strict about glove use.

IMO, the safest method is to have strict hygiene rules regarding fingernail length, cuticle maintenance, and absolutely no nail polish ever, have handwash sinks in multiple convenient locations, each with their own instant-on hot water boosters, and have management enforce handwashing as if their customers' lives depend on it (because they kind of do.) All management should also be trained to use superglue to properly seal minor cuts and abrasions on cuticles and hands. Yes, I know that's not medically advised, exactly, but it works. Measure a restaurant's food safety with four steps: do they have superglue in the medicine cabinet, do they use at least a case of 6% bleach per week, is the bin in their icemaker immaculately clean, and would you sit on the floor and eat a sandwich in their dry storage area.

TopoGigo:Abacus9: TopoGigo: Big f*cking deal. This just in: your prepackaged convenience foods don't just rain down from the heavens; they're made by humans. Also, this is why most states have a requirement for bandages used in food services to be blue. Blue is an unlikely color to find in foods, and it stands out quite nicely. States that require gloves (which I personally disagree with) should also require that they be blue.

You disagree with using gloves?

I disagree with using gloves for ready-to-eat foods in a restaurant. The simple reason is that the same f*ckbrains who can't wash their hands think the gloves are goddamned magic. Go to Subway some time, grab a table, and just watch those numbnuts. They'll take money, touch their faces, stick their hands in the garbage cans, wash dishes, pick sh*t up off the ground, and any number of foul things with their gloves on, but it's ok, because I'm wearing gloves! The worst part is, even the ones who know better will push it, because you're required to wash your hands every time you change your gloves. Guess what? When your hands are damp, you can't get the gloves on.

You can feel when your hands are dirty. You can't feel when your gloves are dirty. Gloves transfer bacteria from surface to surface far more efficiently than skin. The natural oils on your skin have slight antiseptic properties. Your skin also has its own biome of bacteria that is hostile to foreign, for example food-borne, microbes.

The absolute worst part about glove use, though, is the fact that it makes workers and management complacent about cross-contamination. It only takes one mistake at any control point--often before the product even comes in your back door--to introduce food-borne illness into your restaurant, and it's my experience that places with strict handwashing policies will have far better cross-contamination protections than places that are strict about glove use.

IMO, the safest method is to have strict hygiene rules regarding fingernail length, cuticle maintenance, and absolutely no nail polish ever, have handwash sinks in multiple convenient locations, each with their own instant-on hot water boosters, and have management enforce handwashing as if their customers' lives depend on it (because they kind of do.) All management should also be trained to use superglue to properly seal minor cuts and abrasions on cuticles and hands. Yes, I know that's not medically advised, exactly, but it works. Measure a restaurant's food safety with four steps: do they have superglue in the medicine cabinet, do they use at least a case of 6% bleach per week, is the bin in their icemaker immaculately clean, and would you sit on the floor and eat a sandwich in their dry storage area.

You make a good point, but I don't agree that lowering a standard is the solution. Clean hands will always be dirtier than clean gloves. What you described sounds like a training issue, combined with poor management.

Abacus9:You make a good point, but I don't agree that lowering a standard is the solution. Clean hands will always be dirtier than clean gloves.

Clean hands will always be dirtier than clean gloves. That is absolutely true. In a restaurant, though, you really don't care about most things that hands have on them. When your food comes to the table, you don't rub it on your open sores, you drop it in a pit of acid. Your digestive system destroys nearly all the microorganisms you ingest--that's a major reason stomach acid exists in the first place. The small subset that can survive and thrive are what we call food-borne illnesses, and there's a pretty short list of them. They can only (simplified for this conversation--there are other ways that aren't germane) come from about five sources. They can be carried in water, which is incredibly rare in commercial kitchens in the first world. They can be carried by insects or rodents, who won't wear gloves no matter how many times they get written up. They live in the soil, which is on all sorts of potatoes, carrots, lettuces, etc. in the kitchen. They can be transferred from other food or garbage by either hands, gloves, or food contact surfaces. (Of the three, gloves transfer them most efficiently.) Or they can be introduced by human carriers, almost exclusively because an employee failed to wash his hands after using the restroom. Of those five vectors, three are independent of glove use. One is slightly more likely with proper glove use, and one is more likely with poor handwashing, but exactly equal with proper handwashing.

Now, consider the time involved. Proper handwashing--assuming you have a good setup with instant-on hot water, wall-mounted soap dispenser, easy-to-use paper towel dispenser, and strategically located trash can--takes 35 seconds, and even a 15 second handwash is more or less sufficient to clean recent soil. Getting your hands dry enough that latex gloves will go on them without tearing takes more like 60 seconds. Cooks are busy, and a minute is an eternity in a kitchen. If your cooks don't have a minute to spare, what would you have them do? Wear their soiled gloves longer than they should or just change them without washing their hands? Before you answer that, consider that when you wear gloves in a hot kitchen, your hands sweat profusely. You have provided the bacteria that was on your hands with a warm, moist, dark environment to breed. (Not technically breed, as bacteria are asexual, but you get my drift.) You can go from a statistically insignificant number of colliform bacteria that couldn't sicken the bubble boy to a full colony of death in no time at all in such a perfect environment. Then, when you change gloves, you have to touch the outside of the new gloves with your biohazard fingers to put them on. So, what's more reasonable? To expect to train your employees to take 35 seconds to wash their uncomfortable dirty hands, with your lead yelling at them to hurry the hell up, or to take 60 seconds to wash hands that only feel hot and sweaty, plus deal with the stress of getting the damned gloves on your hands, even though I swear they're dry, goddamnit, why won't they just go the hell on! under the same conditions?

And all this is completely discounting the false sense of security that gloves can give.